Hi, I'm thinking of changing the engine and gearbox to get a fifth gear. If you take the drive package from a Solara, I have heard that the drive shafts do not fit. What do you have to do to make it work? Do you have to cut and joint the drive shafts?

Peter L.

On which engine would you like to swap the 5-speed-box? And which 5-speed-box? ME or BE?

Solara driveshafts should fit without problems. Maybe you have to change the rear wheel bearing system of your Bagheera as only later Bagheeras do have the Solara-like bearings with integrated seals. Depending on the type of bearing the outer driveshaft joint is different.

The major problem is that 5-speed-gearboxes do not fit on 4-speed-Simca-gearbox-engines as the distance between the lower threads is different, 262mm for 4-speed-engines and 280mm for 5-speed-engines. So you will have to modify the engine-bloc ... or swap the 1592ccm-engine into your car.

Hi Kris, my ide was to switch gearbox and engine. I am right now trying to find out if it is at all posible. And I realy do not know what You mean by `lower threads´. What I found out so far is that gear lever must be havely modified, right? Should I take the drive shafts as well from the Solara?

Peter L.

Salut, je pense changer le moteur et la boîte de vitesses pour obtenir une cinquième vitesse. Si vous prenez l'ensemble de transmission d'un Solara, j'ai entendu dire que les arbres de transmission ne correspondent pas. Que devez-vous faire pour que cela fonctionne? Devez-vous couper et assembler les arbres de transmission?

Je pense changer le moteur et la boîte de vitesses pour obtenir une cinquième vitesse. Si vous prenez l'ensemble de transmission d'un Solara, j'ai entendu dire que les arbres de transmission ne correspondent pas. Que devez-vous faire pour que cela fonctionne? Devez-vous couper et assembler les arbres de transmission?

Peter L.

the gearbox is mounted with some 4 bolts towards the engine. the upper threads for these bolts are identically on all engines - but the lower ones are NOT. depending on the type of gearbox the bolt-threads do not have the same position in the engine bloc.

Ok thank you, now I understand. But my idea was to use engine and gearbox that fits together.

Peter L.